R.I.P. Stuart Wilde – A Cautionary Tale

I am a long time spiritual practitioner (and now writer and counselor). One of the most influential spiritual teachers on my own journey has been Stuart Wilde. As you may know, Stuart Wilde passed away in Ireland at the beginning of May. He had a heart attack at the age of 66. It was with sadness that I heard of his passing. So many spiritual seekers of my age (47) and thereabouts have been deeply influenced by him.

There is no question that Stuart Wilde was one of the most influential teachers of modern spirituality, and in particular the new age movement. As a young man I read his books such as Whispering Winds of Change and Miracles. One of my favourite possessions was his tape set (remember tapes?) called Your Infinite Self. There was a kind of boyish wonder contained within those recordings and books. Wilde came across as intelligent, slightly irreverent, witty and very articulate. These inspiring works were written and recorded in Wilde’s early middle age, when he still retained something of the romantic and untamed magic of youth.

But as the years passed something changed within Stuart Wilde, and it became very notable in his books and blog posts. By the late 1990s his writings had taken on a notably pessimistic tone. Where he once wrote charmingly of universal abundance and opportunity, he now penned tales of demonic forces, meddling alien intelligences, government conspiracies and the impending, inevitable end of the world. Some of his blog posts became little more than barely coherent rants – directed at former colleagues, his publisher (Hay House) and others in the new age industry.

Rumours began to spread of Wilde’s alcoholism, drug use, and womanising. Several of his seminars ended with Wilde walking off stage after organisers had criticised him for being inebriated. There were cancellations of entire gigs, some featuring gatherings of angry crowds demanding their money back. That was when the debts began to mount. Suddenly the former salesman was advertising “exclusive” memberships to his secretive mystical group and peddling cure-all “light pens” – all at exorbitant prices.

Many felt deeply disappointed, even disillusioned. Some former followers became angry and bitter.

As time went on, Wilde’s health began to deteriorate. Years of chain-smoking, drinking and drug abuse had taken their toll. It was not a great surprise to many that his passing came early.

Stuart Wilde’s life – and his legacy – provides a cautionary tale for the modern spiritual seeker. There is much to be thankful for, and much to reflect upon with the introspective gaze of the mystic. For in many ways Wilde represents all that is both great and troubled about the modern new age movement and contemporary spirituality in the material age.

Wilde’s early years were almost a perfect advertisement for new age thinking, and in particular the idea of what has come to be known as the Law of Attraction – the idea that we can by conscious intention attract into our lives all that we desire.

It was the early 1980s. Pop music was infused by the plaintive tones of the New Romantics. Even as Duran Duran released music videos shot in exotic locations, singing of being hungry like the wolf, there was a hunger rising within Stuart Wilde. He had cut his teeth as a salesman selling jeans in England. He claimed to be making many thousands of pounds a day and living in a million-dollar apartment. Given his charismatic personality and gift of the gab, the assertion is probably true.

But as time went on, Wilde grew tired of “tick-tock” (as he liked to refer to the world of money-making, the nine-to-five reality of the wage slave – and as far as I can tell, he was never one of those). Wilde grew increasingly fascinated by mysticism, and in particular spiritualism.

Then one day he had simply had enough. He walked out of his lavish London apartment and tossed the keys away. He didn’t even bother to move his stuff out. For two years or so he developed his channelling skills with a spiritualist church. His view of mysticism was heavily influenced by those years, as he openly stated. His life from that point forward was centred upon the visions that came to him on a regular basis.

It was at this time that one of his spiritual teachers told him that he must never travel to Shanghai, for if he did a dark and terrible karmic fate awaited him. Wilde never forgot that prophecy. He refused to venture to exotic Shanghai.

But did Shanghai come to him?

After just a few years steeped in spiritualism Wilde grew restless. He made his move out into the murky yet largely untapped world of modern mysticism.

Stuart Wilde came onto the scene like a breath of fresh air, and his books were an instant success. He wasn’t like other spiritual teachers. In his books he came across as irreverent and very funny, the vernacular more akin to a guy leaning against the bar in an old English pub than that of the robed monks of yore (in Whispering Winds of Change Wild refers to the habit of businessmen in seating themselves in meetings and “polishing their knobs”). It was uplifting and hilarious. No longer was spirituality just for overly-serious and introverted men chanting away over dusty prayer books while rubbing worn beads together. Nor was mystical experience just for the poor and luckless.

Now you could be spiritual, funny, rich, drunk. And get laid.

Strangely, this philosophy appealed greatly to men. Here was a man speaking a man’s language while talking about the “warrior-sage”. And let’s face it, much of spirituality was – and is – largely emasculated. Even the patriarchal religions tend to suppress the male energy and especially male sexuality. The Pope does not come across as terribly sexy or macho. The Dalai Lama doesn’t do leather.

In some of his gatherings Wilde would order the women out of the room. He didn’t trust them.

What’s more, Stuart Wilde talked up the life of the “fringe dwellers”, those disenchanted folks who despise the worker-day world of tick-tock. And there are plenty of those.

Like many in the new age movement, Wilde spoke of connecting with a higher self and a realm of infinite possibilities. And like those same new age teachings the focus came to rest upon that one elusive thing that there is never enough of.

Money.

Money is nothing but a reflection of your inner state of mind, said Wilde. The universe is infinite, and we can have whatever we want (money included) – as long as we develop the right mindset, see through the bullshit of society, and stop giving our power away to a system that is trying the enslave us.

Wilde loved The Matrix. He watched it scores of times.

Stuart Wilde tapped into the energy of his times. He tapped our hearts and souls. He was something of a marketing genius in that respect. He told people what they wanted to hear. He was a man of his era.

But as with so many geniuses, there was hubris.

It wasn’t that Wilde didn’t value self-discipline. He’d said quite plainly that spiritual discipline was necessary, especially in the early stages of spiritual development. He spoke of his rituals: fasting on nothing but broth for days at a time, and carrying stones from one point of a courtyard to another, then back again. The purpose was to quieten the mind – just as many monastic traditions have taught throughout ages past.

But the self-disciplines were not so necessary after a certain period, Wilde said. This was a point that was taken to the extreme. For Stuart Wilde’s capacity for physical and mental self-discipline waned over the years.

I only ever saw Stuart Wilde in public once, as a young man in 1993. At this time he came to Australia with several other big-name new age speakers like Wayne Dyer and Deepak Chopra. There were tens of thousands of people there with me that day. To be honest, I don’t remember that much about his talk. But I do recall that he was quite overweight, with an Englishman’s classic beer belly. And the other thing that I recall vividly was that at the end of his hour-long talk he moved theatrically to the front of the stage and fell to his knees – quite literally. He implored his listeners to be humble before the wisdom of the universe.

So it was that a big part of Stuart Wilde’s teachings right across the years was about recognising the ego, and dealing with the shadow side of the mind – the darkness within. There is much evil in the world, and it is up to each of us to acknowledge that potential within ourselves, and to quieten the ego. He was particularly harsh when speaking of the world of money and the greed that permeates business and politics. Those who had the cash and power wanted to keep it to themselves. Now it was time for the fringe-dwellers to take their share of that power and money.

But something happened to Stuart Wilde as the 1990s drifted towards the 2000s; and by most objective measures, it was not something good. His drinking seemed to get out of control. One wealthy friend and disciple states that he became “an alcoholic by any normal standards”. His liking for drugs became well known. He had an alleged fondness for ecstasy. In his later years he took groups to South America on ayahuasca tours. Just how much of the drug Stuart Wilde himself partook of is unclear. But he did take some. According to one unverified account, after one ayahuasca trip Wilde became hysterical and began to run about sobbing that he was a spiritual fraud. On another one of his Amazon excursions his group was held up by armed bandits while drugged out. One woman allegedly was robbed of US$10 000.

What are we to make of all this? There are those on the internet who have railed against Wilde as a demonic force, a lecherous, womanising, drunken junkie who exploited the unsuspecting and needy for his own selfish and lustful purposes. Yet many of his supporters say he never claimed to be a guru, or to be perfect. He gave to humanity more than he took.

My position lies somewhere in between.

As a long-time spiritual practitioner and spiritual counselor, I can see clearly where Stuart Wilde went wrong with his teachings. As I have mentioned, my spiritual journey has involved a lot of work with the shadow, and I was taught how to peer into souls and see the hidden depths within men (and women). Yes, I’m the kind of guy that others like to steer clear of at parties.

The greatest limitation of Stuart Wilde’s approach to spiritual development is that he made visionary states the focus of his knowledge. Being very clairvoyant myself, I can understand why he did this. Just like Wilde, for years I spent much of my life paying careful attention to dreams and visions. And I had some pretty profound and powerful ones. But dreams and visions are highly problematic. They can be heavily distorted by the ego, by other minds and also by discarnate entities – something that Stuart Wilde never fully explained to his audience (although he was very aware of the fact).

It is well known in the Buddhist traditions that the psychic realms can be a distraction from genuine spiritual wisdom. I have had many thousands of visions, including premonitions and visitations from spiritual guides, projections from other minds, and interactions with what appear to be angelic and alien intelligences. I have learned a great deal from these. Still, I came to realise that visionary states can ensnare the mind in distraction and delusion if one is not careful.

Stuart Wilde had many addictions, and his most harmful was his addiction to the psychic.

Think about it. How does any vision – no matter how grand, no matter how profound the revelation contained – have the capacity to transform your consciousness? Your mind? Your life? The answer is, I’m afraid, very little. If God himself appeared to you in a vision and told you the secrets of life, the universe and everything, I doubt it would make that much difference to your overall state of well-being, nor to your level of spiritual development. For after the vision fades, after the guide, the angel, the god or God has departed, you are still left with… the moment in all its terrifying emptiness. You remain adrift upon the ocean of the mind in its state of separation.

And nobody but you can come to terms with the nothingness that lies at the heart of all fear.

There is no saviour.

What I have come to understand over the years is that the psychic realm is a trap. It tends to ensnare the mind in another level of seeking – seeking the next bit of guidance, the next epiphany, he next grand revelation. But how many revelations do you really need to finally get it? To finally arrive at wherever your spiritual journey is taking you?

It took me many years, but I finally got the answer. It is this. That there is no future experience, no future state, no future revelation which can free you from the fundamental terror of possessing a singular mind. The essence of any genuine spiritual journey must be the final understanding that the journey is an illusion. It is only when the mind is brought into silence, into full presence within this moment, in the here and now, that you will ever be truly free.

Enlightenment happens here and now, or never.

Why then do so many people seek spiritual liberation in books, in teachings, in gurus, and in spiritual guidance from another realm? The reason is that at a deep level the mind does not want to be here. It does not want to accept the mundane world of now. And the main reason for that is because within the psyche of most of us there is a great deal of trapped pain. Our painful pasts follow us around like so many lost puppies. We attempt to divert our attention from the hurt by setting up future goals that require fulfilling – or by going on a spiritual journey. The goal to become enlightened in the future is not so different from the goal of getting laid, becoming the CEO or making your first million.

When you stop and bring the mind into presence one of the first things you will notice is that it is very, very uncomfortable. The second thing you will notice is that as you relax your mind’s control, painful feelings will begin to surface. These are all those painful memories that exist within you, the feelings that have never been allowed full expression. They contain splintered elements of your childhood and past lives. They also contain ancestral energies, projections of consciousness which have been passed down from generation to generation. You will also find projections from your culture, your race, the civilisation in which your mind is embedded.

If this all sounds like it might be too much to bear, well it is – at least all at once. But the presence process is self-regulating, thanks to a divine regulation that is far beyond your conscious control. When you commit to relax fully and allow all that lies within you to surface, each day will bring forth something new – and all in perfect timing. Some emotional energies will spontaneously move through you. Other soul issues will be triggered by life events and the dramas you unconsciously get yourself into with other people. The true Sage realises these things, and assumes responsibility for whatever he experiences within himself, or within his life.

All that is perfect for his spiritual evolution will be attracted to him. The key here is that what is attracted occurs not so much according to his conscious will, but according to divine timing. He attracts not what he wants, but what he is. For as I outline in my book A More Attractive Law of Attraction, this is the truth about the Law of Attraction that so many in the new age movement refuse to acknowledge.

I do not believe that Stuart Wilde understood this fully.

Yet Stuart Wilde’s life was perfect in its own right. It was divine perfection; and all of us who were drawn to it in whatever way have come to learn and grow from his example. It is just that certain lessons have been somewhat unintended!

I believe that the greatest gift that Stuart Wilde left us is not to take the spiritual journey too seriously. We should have fun, laugh, and play. We should indulge ourselves in a little joy and playfulness from time to time.

Just be aware of that old saying. Everything in moderation.

Stuart Wilde also taught us to question the norms of our society. Don’t blindly buy what they want to sell you.

Societal laws are not the same as spiritual laws. Still, if you break societal laws and conventions you are going to piss quite a few people off.

Stuart Wilde was the quintessential baby boomer, railing against society and authority while pushing the envelope as far as it could be pushed. And like more than a few people of his generation, in the end Stuart Wilde failed to grasp that life has limits. The physical body has limits too. Smoking, drinking and taking drugs to excess damages your physical system. More importantly; when imbalanced these things stop us from feeling what is within us, and we then discontent from the body. In turn, if we are not grounded in the body, we cannot be fully present. Stuart Wilde admitted as much, confessing at one time that he knew “nothing about the three lower chakras”.

Finally, I want to address an issue that many long-time Stuart Wilde fans became confused about – the darkness. The darkness includes the malevolent entities which Wilde maintained lurk just beyond the conscious awareness of most human beings. I wish I could reassure you that these things are just Wilde’s projections and delusions generated by drugs or an over-enthusiasm with the visionary state.

Unfortunately, being a visionary mystic myself, I cannot.

In his later years Stuart Wilde wrote and said much about the darkness – ghouls, alien interference, etc. Wilde also maintained that electrical devices were a kind of portal through which these entities amplified their influence upon humanity – via mobile phones, computers, laptops etc.

More bad news. He was right. All electrical devices can affect the human consciousness field negatively, and expose you to dark energy. You need to minimise exposure to electro-magnetic fields. I have seen this very clearly in my visionary experience. Negative entities do exist,

Yet there is good news here too. As far as I know, Stuart Wilde did not realise that – generally speaking – if you ground your mind in the present moment and within the body your consciousness field becomes largely impervious to external interference.

This is where an awareness of the base chakra and the body becomes essential. If you develop the right relationship with your ego (including judgments), and deal with the wounds of the inner child (which are embedded within the emotional body), the darkness has little power over you.

Further, by allowing the shadow to speak you can lessen the influence of the darkness over you. Ultimately all low density consciousness fields are connected either to the shame and pain of the body or to the ego’s lust for control and power. So the key to personal empowerment and stability within your consciousness field is to regularly channel your wounded child – and own ego (this is more than I can explain here, but you will find more details in my book Discover Your Soul Template). Befriending your shadow will teach you more about spiritual empowerment than a million visions from “the aluna”, “the morph” or whatever you want to call it. I’m very psychic myself, but have learned to tone it down and live in presence. As soon as you go into the psychic, it is all too easy get lost in the mind and ego.

My final take on all this.

What ultimately drags us into the darkness and ego – whether it be Stuart Wilde’s darkness, my darkness, or anyone else’s – is judgment. When we are angry and judgmental, it is our pain that is speaking. And our anger is not “us”. It is our past.

As the years went by, Stuart Wilde became increasingly angry and judgmental. One of Stuart Wilde’s final creative acts is a video which is still accessible on YouTube. It is a song entitled “God rot our king”. It is little more than an extended rant about Obama. Wilde increasingly talked about how dark people are, and how they are rotting from the inside. The irony of this should be apparent to anyone who is honest enough to look at Wilde’s life objectively. Ultimately, he could not rise above the darkness that he so reviled in humanity.

And yet, I loved him.

True it is a torn love, much like the love for a damaged woman; that dark temptress whom your mother and your friends warned you to stay well clear of.

But you couldn’t resist.

And when that time arrives to finally acknowledge the terrible truth… to tear yourself away from the object of your addiction… it does hurt so.

I mourn his passing.

Stuart Wilde’s life represents the new age taken as far as it can go. He obtained the wealth, the attention, the fame that so many law of attraction teachings promise.

And we found that it was not enough. There was no lasting peace in it. No lasting love.

The visions. The money. The drugs. The alcohol. And the women. All were not enough.

There is but one thing that can ever fill the void of our existential aloneness, and that is to be simply, fundamentally, eternally present.

To be here now.

There is no glamour in that. It is not sexy. It is quintessentially powerful, but you can’t wield power with it. It is too simple to sell. How do you sell presence? It is like selling air.

Okay, so Eckhart Tolle pulled it off. Fair enough.

But even as we recognise his human frailties, let us not condemn Stuart Wilde in his moment of passing. Let us simply be grateful for the lessons taught, even those that were not consciously intended.

Over the years I have had many visions of Stuart Wilde. Somehow – although I never shook his hand – our lives seemed inextricably interconnected. In my own life I have lived as a modern mystic, traveling through many countries and living and working throughout the Asia-Pacific region. I have been a spiritual teacher of much more subdued influence. And like Wilde I have encountered the darkness within and about me; the temptress of money, power and sex prostituting itself before me more often than I care to confess. My choices have not always been those I would care to publicly confess.

I wonder what choices I would have made had I been granted the money, power and fame that Stuart Wilde was?

What about you?

Stuart Wilde never did venture to Shanghai. But I did. I lived and worked in the greater China region for a dozen years, sampling many of the graces and vices of the exotic Far East. I often thought of Wilde’s mystical teacher’s advice that he should not travel to Shanghai. In retrospect I cannot help but wondering if “Shanghai” was a metaphor for something else, as the often cryptic world of spiritual guidance can muddle the literal and the symbolic. In the 1920s Shanghai was one of the world’s great centres of hedonism – with its rampant materialism, unbridled sexual energy and opium-induced drug culture (and similarly again today). Was ”Shanghai” a literal warning – or a metaphor for the pull of that most alluring and exotic of temptresses, the human ego?

Dear Marcus: Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I am not clear on exactly how well you knew Stuart Wilde; you do say that you only saw him in public once, so I am unsure from where your information about him for your interesting article comes. You mention his womanising. I spent a week in the jungle with Stuart taking ayahuasca and not at any time did he behave like anything other than a perfect gentlemen with all of the women on the trip, some of whom were quite attractive. He treated us respectfully, and certainly not as though he didn’t trust us. You also mention something about him being drunk on stage. I did attend a large gathering in the 90’s in an Anaheim California hotel. About 500 people in the ballroom. Stuart came out apparently absolutely inebriated and rambled on incoherently for about half an hour. I was baffled. More than two-thirds of the room angrily stormed out, demanding their money back. During this commotion, Stuart mumbled something about taking a break and returning soon. There were perhaps 150 of us who waited to see what would happen. In exactly five minutes he returned, quite bright eyed, and completely sober. He rubbed his hands together gleefully and said to us all, “Well, now we’ve got rid of THEM!” And he proceeded to guide us through quite an amazing meditation to some fabulous music. He wanted to clear the room of all those with huge amounts of judgment before he would proceed. I saw this with my own eyes. This does not come from “hearing about him” from other parties. It is not second hand. May I suggest that a positive action to bring more truth to light would be to comment on Stuart (and anyone else) only from our own personal experience, rather than passing on unveri
fied gossip, hearsay and such. Thank you for listening. I make these observations with respect and appreciate the good points you had to make. Thank you very much for your time. –Ava

Thanks, Ava. Your account is worthwhile and I welcome it. I did originally include some sources in the article, but people asked to have their names taken off. These included people who worked with him for decades. So I have to respect their privacy by not naming them.

There are also many, many reports of the kinds of things mentioned in the article (and some much, much worse which I didn’t include). These are from people who have personally told me about what happened when they attended his workshops, as well as many cases others have put forward on the internet. There are just too many of these for it to be a coincidence or a deliberate smear campaign. I have also had quite a few visions of Stuart, and as an intuitive I have been trained to read shadow energy. I didn’t include any of that shadow reading in the article, but it is consistent with some of the reports (I have done shadow profiles of various people in the past – see http://ow.ly/lUm69 – but stopped doing it because most people don’t understand the process, and think that there is judgment or condemnation in the reading, when it is merely a neutral description of events). Most people have not done enough shadow work themselves to look upon the shadow of another without their ego reacting.

Finally, I am not condemning Stuart Wilde. It is – as the title suggests – a cautionary tale. I have worked in the spiritual field for a while, including with various spiritual groups and teachers, and so much of what happened to Stuart is repeated again again – often on a smaller scale – with others. Some similar things happened to me personally.

In the end this article represents a personal perception. I realise some people are going to be offended by it. But if I remove the less “nice” bits it would be a PR exercise for Stuart, not a cautionary tale.

Thank you, Marcus, for the clear information. In sharing my own experience of Stuart, I do not deny the experiences of others, which may also be equally true. I did not see your piece as attacking Stuart in any way, but as a thoughtful offering on the subject. Thank you for your time and best wishes. –Ava, Presiding Priestess, The GODDESS TEMPLE of Orange County

Thank you for this piece about Stuie, as he called himself. I produced those ‘relics,’ the wonderful Infinite Self tapes, in the 90′s. We had many long chats about life during the course of our collaborations. Because I was in the states, and Stu was in England (or Ireland, or on occasion Australia, where he built his outrageous Tolemac mansion)… we were generally at least 6 hours apart in our time zones. So I’d be in my office and Stu would be at home in the evening, enjoying his gin, during many of our conversations over the course of a couple of years.

Of all the luminaries I’ve worked with, Stuie remains the standout favorite of my career. He had a “checkered past.” Heck, he lived a “checkered life.” He didn’t cover it up, or apologize for it – refreshing in an industry rife with poseurs. He wasn’t a saintly guru. He was a genuine, mold-breaking, full-throttle colorful soul with a delightful gift for communication. Such a charmer.

We made a good team for shaping his material (went through his entire output-to-date to compile it, conceptually), and Infinite Self was a massive hit. Then Hay House contracted with him to put that material in a Hay House book, and thus began his association with that publishing house. I thought they made a good match, but apparently I missed his grousing about them! Then again, he was always suspicious of ‘big business’ and the potential of his being ripped off. He wanted close personal rapport; he bucked at the notion of being just another author in a big stable of talent.
Subsequent to our projects together, seeing him on stage blatantly substance-impaired was rather shocking, and sad. A period ensued when I did not relate to what he was experiencing and sharing.

He was certainly a fringe-dweller, and was usually able to finesse success from his perch on the edge. I loved the man, warts and all. I hope he is enjoying sharing his tales about this side of the veil as he was sharing them with us about ‘the morph.’

Thanks for your personal insight, Whitehawk. Fascinating indeed! You did a great job with Your Infinite Self. Truly a wonderful audio set. I only parted with mine about 9 months ago when I left Hong Kong to return to live in Australia. I had to ditch a lot of stuff. Hopefully someone is making good use of that set of tapes, if they can find the technology to play them!

Your insight certainly adds balance here. There are some pretty nasty threads out there on the net about Stuart. I didn’t want to go down that road with this article. It’s a little difficult to write about Stuart without coming across as being judgmental. I admit to be disappointed by his later years, but he also contributed much and taught many people a good deal. I agree with your point about “poseurs”. Selling spirituality is highly problematic, and a degree of fraudulence is almost inevitable, as you are supposed to come across as “all holy moly” as Stuart might say. I like to be a bit more honest, and a little more light-hearted in my writing than many in the field. There’s no question that Stuart Wilde was a big influence on me in that respect.

Thank you . What a great memorial for a life that reflected light and shadow. to its extremes both Stuart’s and your own .That is the beauty of where we are now I just experienced the wisdom of a lifetime in a moment .

Well, Marcus, I have to believe in the benevolent forces of the Universe, because they led me to this article – LOL! So, so timely. Brilliantly articulated and obviously written from a place of deep experience. I love what you said here: ‘What ultimately drags us into the darkness and ego – whether it be Stuart Wilde’s darkness, my darkness, or anyone else’s – is judgment. When we are angry and judgmental, it is our pain that is speaking. And our anger is not “us”. It is our past.’

I never got involved with the Stuarte Wilde following even though there was an invitation and I think I must have had guardian angels watching over me because I can say the same for Osho and Sai Baba and some others whose dark side eventually manifested and spilled over onto the communities of followers that grew up around them.

I’m with you on the warning about Shangri La probably being a metaphor. It reminded me of that old story about the grim reaper having an appointment with someone in a certain town, which that person then avoided but it caught up with him in his own home, or home town. I’ve forgotten the details but the message is clear. We cannot avoid that which we need to process and it seems the more we try to do that the harder the lessons get. There is a saying ‘what we resist persists’ and I think it has more than a little grain of truth in it.

Thank you for brilliantly articulated, well balanced, informative and educative article. Did I say I like it???

Thanks for those kind words, Gloria. As for Stuart being fated to live that kind of life, maybe its just a bad soul habit! That’s how I describe “karma” in my little book “The Truth about Karma”. Then again, a lot of people here have said they appreciated Stuart. I wonder if what I’d call a “bad” habit God would label something else?

I really liked Stu. And he did go from abundance to demons pretty quick. But when I think of him I get sound bytes like: “The money tree, if the govt. owned it you’d have to pay a tax, there’d be all kinds of restrictions etc.; or to get rid of your ego, go down to the river at 4 a.m. and throw yourself in, that’ll do it; or thank God I’m surrounded by 55 assholes, they’re my teachers.

Thank you for that great article! I too read Stuart’s books in my twenties, and something happened to him around 2001, and as you say, it wasn’t good. I surmise now that it was the Ayahuasca, but I didn’t know it then. Read ‘Silent Power’ now, and you get a shock, it’s so different from his later attitude.
You described that so well, a torn love. I realised in the last few years that what saddened me wasn’t that he had faults – we all do, and big characters have big faults! – it was that he *could* have been, and planned to be, so much more. All the great spiritual teachers are tested, and sometimes they fail. He got enraptured by the astral, like someone heading for a palace, finding a shack in the grounds, and stopping there, believing it IS the palace. I loved Wilde and his writings, and he could make you laugh out loud, but it was painful too, like watching an A-grade student settle for the C stream. If he hadn’t fallen, he would have been a giant, higher than any of us, because he had the potential.
I’ve seen him 5 or 6 times since he died, and he knows this. He said his aura was ‘muddy’, and was agitated about all the drugs he took. (I didn’t know he took any, except ayahuasca, but now I’ve read on the internet that he did). He messed up a bit in the last decade of this life, but he’ll make good, he’s growing.
I learned so much from him, though – what he calls the Morph is real, and without Stuart describing so many of the same things that I saw, my road would have been lonelier. I know we’re all unique, but he was more unique than most!

What most people don’t realise is that Stuart knew ahead of time that he was going to die. He knew the time and the place exactly. His last nine months of writings on his website were preparing those of us who knew him well enough for his death. In fact, he announced it shortly before it happened by telling people of his heart problems and by saying that he wanted the words “A Soldier” written on his gravestone. Stuart knew far more than you realise.

He also was very aware of his own dark side, but as a teacher he also has been known to say that we learn from both good and bad experiences, and that it’s up to us to remain vigilant and keep a look out for the lying salesman who “sells us the lie”, as Michael Tsarion puts it so candidly.

Yes, Stuart did drugs, but in later years he only took those that helped awaken him. In his early years he took all kinds of drugs, before realising that the path he was on was not the path he wanted to stay on. Nostradamus was another visionary who used haluncinogenics to assist him in his visions.

Unless you had truly sought to know the man himself, you’d be unaware of exactly how miraculous his abilities became after his time spent with the woman who took him into the inner worlds and taught him how to fight in there. Much of what he has written about in the last 15 years is so far beyond people’s understanding that it would seem that he’s as delusional as you say here. Ahhh, but did you take the time to really study his last few years of writing? And have you seen for yourself the miracles that he was able to do?

Until you have, you really are just talking from a limited perspective. You only know a little about who Stuart Wilde really is. One thing is for sure….. he’s still very much here, whether you realise it or not.

“like Stuie, i did X, but i did it like Y, and if you read my book (link)…..”

To call ayahusca a drug shows how little you know about sacred teacher plants and their capabilities.

Onto the crux of your article; just be present in awareness, and don’t fall for the trap of visions. Well, i know a zen ‘friend’ – he is ultra present – but boring, monotone, and no sense of humour…..it is like he is internally repeating to himself to be in the now and never try and attain anything or really feel anything. A rigid man who has cut off any sense of animation or excitement.

for me, i like visions, crazy dreams, and rollercoaster type spirituaity – and it does not mean I am not aware.

One thing i think Stuie could teach you is a little humility, as your article reads like a little dance on his grave – with a book stall.

Each of us is free to see the world and its people as we like, Mark. Just as you are free to see me as you like. All judgment is… (fill in your own answer).

In my own life I have come to value presence more than visions and the psychic – although I continue to have many visions – and I cannot turn off my clairvoyance any more than I can turn off my hearing or sight. I am not addicted to the psychic any more. I came to see that being fully present is like having a second childhood. The world of the mundane comes alive in a way that is truly beautiful. It is my honest perception that Stuart Wilde never came to understand the limits of the visionary state, nor its inherent dangers. That’s all that I am sharing here, and I am not forcing it upon anyone or saying my preferred way of life is the only way to live. That would be a violation of free will. I like to think of it as a gentle invitation.

I often put a link or two to my books in my articles if they are relevant. It often takes me about 5 hours of work to write, edit and post, so if I occasionally receive $2 for a book sale (it’s all I get), let’s just call it receiving after giving quite a bit of time and energy. After all, Stuart himself made up to a million from just one of his retreats (according to sources), so I don’t think I should be begrudged receiving $2 once in a while. You are free to ignore the links if you prefer.

I have to agree with Mark. I liked the start of your article but as I continued to read, it became apparent that you are just trying to promote your books on the back of the death of a man who, whatever his faults, was far more well-known than you are ever likely to be. I am a modern mystic, I can see the hidden depths in people, I am an intuitive…blah blah blah. Perhaps you are just not very good at expressing yourself in writing but you come across as rather smug and self satisfied; not qualities that I would associate with spiritually enlightened souls.

I sell around US$20 worth of books a month, Mark. Yes, twenty bucks (it also took me at least five hours to write and publish the article you read). It costs me US$50 just to pay for essential web space and other basic costs such as spamware, and quite a bit more for other stuff. I am on about negative ten bucks an hour for doing this. So if I was doing this for money I would not bother. And if I was doing it for the cudos I wouldn’t bother either, as a certain number of people project their own stuff onto what I write and read what is not there. People often see judgment and persecution where none exists. This is particularly true when writing and speaking about the shadow. Not many people can gaze upon it without it triggering their own fear and pain, their own soul issues. I am no different, to tell you the truth. However I do try to put forward my perceptions as gently as I can. But I cannot control how the reader reacts to it.

So why do I do this? I love writing, and I know that what I write has value for a small number of people. And that’s also why I often include a link to a book here and there. And if you find it has no value for you… walk on by. Just as I’m about to do right now.
Peace,
Marcus

Hello Markus, been reading your article with great interest. I kinda stumbled upon it. I read of few Stuart Wilde books, especially “Affirmations” brought me a lot at the time. Anyway being on my spiritual journey and having lots of thoughts and conversations about spiritual growth many of the things you say feel like they could have come from me. I am amazed! i too feel that the basis of all spiritual explorations should be the silence within, for there is all the strength to deal with Earthly and spiritual matters. I started ascending (www.thebrightpath.com) and it really works for me, and their philosophy matches my own and apparently yours too in a great deal.
I have seen the risks of losing oneself on the path to finding oneself actually, and I believe many people are playing with forces that they are not capable of dealing with. As you said (and as i have said ) we are at risk if we are not grounded in our bodies. If we don’t go to our silence within regularly to heal and to let everything sink in.
I won’t get into my opinion about your article of Mr. Wilde, though I believe that we are all just guessing here what happened. I hope he has found peace wherever he is.
When it comes to ayahuasca I have had some amazing experiences with shamanic ceremonies including ‘la medicina’ and I truly believe in her healing powers. I hate for people to refer it as a ‘drug’. trust me, i come from Amsterdam and I know drugs, but this is a whole different thing, something that cannot be done without proper guidance, a good shaman (or curandero or vegetalista). Especially for people who are not so awake and aware of themselves this could be a true eye opener and a way to dealt with past traumas and obtain insights of oneself. Also to the other ‘commenters’ before judging this as some ‘drug’ i believe ayahuasca enables you to tap into this cosmic intelligence, it is a healing plan and give you visions, not hallucinations. there is a big difference here. i have learned so much more about myself, the idea of the ego and how we are all so beautifully connected. But with all things in life, it is about moderation. Why do we always see people taking things to the extreme, losing themselves in meditation, or organic food, or mystic rituals, or whatever. It is just a human tendency, to lose oneself in something. to escape reality, to escape themselves. Me too i believe in moderation, to explore ourselves and this beautiful world but always to return to our true selves, our silence within. There we will be able to find all the answers we seek. And we can still ‘live’, have fun, make out, get drunk, go scuba diving or whatever you like to do!
Anyway thanks for the article, I will check out your books for sure.
Godspeed!

Thanks for sharing your experience, Sander. I’m not against “drugs” – or whichever term is preferred – as part of the spiritual journey. It just hasn’t been my preferred path.

However I do feel there are problems with some popular drugs.

Maybe it was seeing one of my brothers commit suicide, and another two of my siblings degenerate into insanity that made prefer using other self-induced processes. All three of them were into smoking pot, and one magic mushrooms.

I found that as soon as I employed light trance states that I was extremely clairvoyant. My third eye opened immediately. I honestly never considered using any other assistance, as it just wasn’t necessary in my case. Rather than trying to induce psychic and visionary experiences, I’ve been more interested in recent years with learning how to ignore them. There’s a whole discussion there, but I won’t go into details here.

I am wondering, In November 2012, Stuart wilde healed me. It is still an ongoing process. He healed my knees. Whay has that not come out in your comments. Why did you not reveal allthis information about SW before. He has gone to a much better place. I feel allthis should have come out before. Having gone to his seminars, I chose what to take with me and what to leave. No one can tell you what to do. I have had to deal with visions and intitution my whole life. I have indeed run from it. Now as a mature woman, I relize it is a natural gift given to me to help me in my growth. Blessings to you—as sw would say Blowing Love your way “”_””

Everything that we hear,see,feel,or think is part of our responsibility.Angels exist,devils exist too(light and darkness),the books of God exist(The Creator wrote them to make our life easy,not to make our life difficult)Every Prophet of God came to Earth to say the same message:Worship only one Lord,your Creator.Be thankful.For many people God is fame,money,her\his ego.
O people, turn all your answers,spiritual journey,teaching to your Creator who created you from nothing.Read Qur’an!
May God bless us!!!

Sorry, I missed your post. After the first approval your posts show up automatically. As is mentioned a couple of times in the article and in the comments, I only ever saw him speak live once. I never spoke to him or shook his hand.

Thank you for your respectful article about Stuart Wilde’s life and passing. How I miss his messages on his website even though some were dark and negative. I went to one of his gigs in London which was both fascinating and disappointing. A strange combination! So goodbye Stuart. Peace be with you. I shall reread Whispering Winds of Change soon. It was my bible when I first came across it over 20 years ago. Perhaps I did look up to you too much. Now it is time to grow up and live without your teachings on tap every day.

You summed it up with ‘Here and Now’
I went through the psychic stuff for a lot of years. Personally it never brought me any peace whatsoever.
I read your article because I was interested in Stuart Wilde and so I thought you were just going to talk about his and your own psychic experiences. But it was so great to hear you say that it’s really about Now.

Glad you got something out of it, Robert. Everyone has their own way of dealing with life. I just found that accessing the psychic did not free me from the world of “mind”, and its endless fearful futures and painful pasts. So for me it is a matter of grounding myself in the body, in the world of here and now, and then developing the right relationship with the mind, including the psychic. The psychic can be a real trap. That’s what befell SW, IMHO.

Thank you for the wonderful tribute/eulogy to Stuart, and opening up a most heartfelt dialogue about him. I think am getting just as much from the good comments about him as the darker ones. It creates a more complete, rounded portrait of the man, who was, after all, human, with human flaws and foibles.

My wife and I saw him years ago at the Agape center in Los Angeles, and yes, I did get to meet him and shake his hand at a reception held right after the show. I thought he was an excellent spiritual showman, knew the value of spiritual entertainment, opening us up to hear spiritual content while we were busy laughing or crying along with him. There were some beautiful moments during that night with him that I still remember. Now if I could only find the tapes of that show…

As for teachers with controversy, well, you only find that with the better teachers anyway. Your “good” boys and girls may know their spiritual teachings, but they tend to be a little dry for my taste. Let ’em stay in the ashram. I studied with Zen Master Rama during the 80s. Talk about your controversy. But the man, like Stuie, had some serious light to give that I could find nowhere else. Give me a spiritual showman anyday.

C’mon people, don’t go looking for perfection in your spiritual teachers. If they are any good at all, that’s the last place you’re going to find it (thank God!).

That’s certainly one way of looking at imperfection in spiritual teachers, Jim. And in the end, if we get tripped up, it may not be the worst possible outcome (Jim Jones, David Koresh types excepted). I probably learned my most valuable spiritual lessons from a teacher to whom I totally gave my power away. She had me totally possessed. Now there’s a lesson you can’t buy at your average ashram!

“I did originally include some sources in the article, but people asked to have their names taken off. These included people who worked with him for decades. So I have to respect their privacy by not naming them.”

How can we get true knowledge or truth about SW without solid sources? Isn’t that libel otherwise?

I understand where you are coming from, Sleeper Cell, but I cannot add anything else other than what I have indicated above. As for truth, each of us has to make up our own mind, and as I said, I’m not condemning anyone, simply pointing out the problems that can arise with certain kinds of approaches to spirituality and life in general. Others might disagree with my perspective.

Hello Marcus,
Stuart was unknown to me until short before his death, when I found his book, The infinite Self, in a second hand shop. I read it and was very taken to his teaching and his style, though I am not English and I didn`t understand some of his jokes or they were no jokes for me. I have just bought some more books, written by him and I am reading his last book about Gaia etc. and I was quite surprised, because I am gradually getting a strange feeling that there is something wrong, that´s why I was searching for some information about him and got to your blog.
A vital question to you: How do you learn to be present? Thanks.

Hi Eli. Glad you found the post useful. I go into how to be present in my book Discover Your Soul Template. You might also like the teachings of Leonard Jacobson and Eckhart Tolle. Both are masters of presence and have many excellent videos on YouTube. If it is OK with you, I will answer your question in one of my upcoming Five Minute Mystic videos. You can see them on this web site from time to time.

Publishing unsubstantiated, negative comments about Stuart’s personal life this quickly after his death is inappropriate and disrespectful. Stuart has a young son and many loved ones he left behind. You link to your books and claims that you are “wiser” tells your story. I’ll quote Stuart “upchuck city.”

ROB, I believe Marcus ‘A Cautionary Tale’ hits it right on the head. The remarks aren’t negative .It is how alot of people saw his life. Its also how u react to the remarks. I found it very positive. I always think of Stuart as two headed snake entwined ( with a good and bad side). I always ignore his bad side even thought it got me from time to time – ( because my ego wasn’t in-check ). This good side lead me to how to talk to god/universe .He told me to get off my arse and write my book that was 13 years ago. Book should be out in the next 12 months. A week ago now I was thinking about my book and guess who turns up to push me to finish the book. My bedroom is next to computer room and he start making keyboard noises from my computer room, just to push me a bit more. He still around at the moment. I believe he will be reincarnated soon as the earth still needs souls like that. I heard this the other day which I find very true. We know what’s right but we do the opposite so we know what we don’t want. Love to all on this earth plan as it gets a bit tricky something.